The natural disasters that struck Australia between November 2010 and February 2011 saw more than 99% of Queensland disaster-declared, with 37 lives lost. During the same period, all other Australian states and the Northern Territory experienced severe weather events or other natural disasters, such as bushfires.

The total cost of relief and recovery will not be completely realised for some years, but the recovery assistance for the 2010–11 natural disasters are well above the historical average. Queensland received an advance payment of $2.256 billion under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements for relief and recovery activities associated with the floods and Tropical Cyclone Yasi, while Victoria received a $500 million advance payment for its flood recovery work.

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) supported over 700,000 Australians adversely affected by these disasters, including:

Queensland floods in December 2010 and January 2011

New South Wales floods in January 2011

Victoria floods in January and February 2011

Tropical Cyclone Yasi in February 2011

Western Australia floods in December 2010 and

Western Australia bushfires in February 2011.

Approximately 3,000 eligible New Zealanders living in Australia received assistance equivalent to the AGDRP.

The Disaster Income Recovery Subsidy was provided to approximately 62,000 eligible employees, small business persons and farmers affected by severe weather in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Statistics contained in the Year Book are the most recent available at the time of preparation. In many cases, the ABS website and the websites of other organisations provide access to more recent data. Each Year Book table or graph and the bibliography at the end of each chapter provides hyperlinks to the most up to date data release where available.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.